Tag Archives: love

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ` Maya Angelou

Who can’t agree with the above statement from the late and great, Ms Angelou? We all want the full juicy experience that the cornucopia of life can lay tumbling at our feet.

ROFLOL, Drive and Grace

To have strong, hot passion — in whatever we endeavor to do — is the delectability of living this life. To be able to laugh at our fragile mortality and existential situations is pure magic and can be one of the most important exercises in our daily routine. And to be bestowed with style is simply flamboyantly fabulous, darling! They all make life more livable (and in the case of style, our wardrobes heavier and our wallets lighter).

But the two things I think are paramount to living the life extraordinaire are to have a limitless supply of love and compassion.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” ` Dalai Lama

I think the Dalai Lama hit the nail on the head with that one. These two ‘traits’ are our innate tools to a trade-up in human existence.

Most of us want peace on earth and the sense that we are evolving and not devolving. Although on the surface it might look like society is on an insidious degeneration, I feel that where love and compassion exist — even if it is in small packages (after all, we’re going to do this one fabulous soul at a time — one courageous community at a time) — there is hope for reprieve.

Connect, Love and Fertilize — Happy Days!

Love holds our intrinsic ability to connect with and hold space for each other (fleshy or furry) and the planet (and the universe!) — it’s the glue that holds existence together IMHO (soon I’ll be writing these articles in pure acronym — God forbid!).

Compassion fertilizes the soil for love to grow strong (*violin softly playing in the background*). If we can’t empathize with each other we are doomed. Truth is not singular and we need to open up to the possibility that not everyone thinks the way we do…duh! Retaliation is never going to lead us to peace.

The antithesis would be to hold fear for others and even possibly for our planet (that can appear so volatile at any given moment). Fear often leads us to judgment — the need to make someone right and someone wrong — which inevitably closes down the channel to empathy and understanding.

Hippy Nonsense!

I know I’m going to get some people shaking their heads and saying that love and compassion ‘aint going to cut it — we need justice in the world!

I’m not arguing the fact that justice may indeed need to be withheld for a community to run smoothly, I’m just pointing out that you can still have love and compassion for a person(s) who has done ‘wrong’. Instead of condemning someone for life, try to see if you can rather figure out the ‘why’ (compassion) and then treat the root of the problem (with love).

We hear the terms ‘heart-centered living’ and ‘using your heart’ thrown around a lot in conversation and literature these days but how do we practically do this? What wisdom does our heart really have?

“There is no instinct like that of the heart.” ~ Lord Byron

Piercing the Heart Mystery

When I think of using my heart and not my head to gauge situations, it conjures feelings of love (synonymous with our ‘hearts’) and trusting my intuition. However, it still baffles me a bit…well at least up until a recent experience I had (I promise to divulge all the juicy bits further on in this article).

In my experience, heart wisdom has got as much to do with our physical heart organ as mind has to do with our physical brain.

The process of working with your heart guidance is better likened to a hunk of awareness that clusters in the area of your heart. You drop into that space, which is the center of your being — your core — and you try to sense your inborn intelligence…something called the innate.

This is how I see it, or rather, how I feel it.

The Moving Around of Consciousness

When we are thinking and talking, our consciousness is usually felt in the head. See if you can feel your consciousness right now. Does it feel like it’s all sitting up in your noggin?

Now see if you can drop that sense of conscious awareness into your heart center (which is actually your heart chakra — in the middle of your chest).

I feel it’s all about focusing that consciousness wherever it is needed. Sometimes, we can drop that awareness into our solar plexus to ‘feel’ for our gut instinct. When we are faced with challenges, it’s best to sense our answers from the heart chakra and when we need to take action (after we have processed through the heart), we move our awareness up into our head.

It’s a Combo Deal

We need to get used to using all our bodily ‘brains’ to face the challenges of living in this chaotic and, yet, oh so beautiful world.

We have brains in our skull, for sure, but you can also say we have intelligence dotted all over the body — in our gut, in our heart, in our pineal, in our feet and so on. Most of us have just lost the inherent ability to use them all.

Thumbs Up to a Helpful Heart

Okay, so here’s my story about how I finally ‘got’ using the heart guidance:

A couple of days ago I got my thumb slammed in the hinge-side of my car door…and this is where I’m going to introduce you to the South African word (Afrikaans to be precise), ‘Eina!’ Pronounced ‘aye – naa’ and it means PAIN.

After using ice pack after ice pack to numb the pain, I knew it was inevitable that I would have to leave the cold comfort of my plastic glacial crutch and feel the damage.

This is where the head came into play.

My thoughts wandered all over my thumb piercing the excruciating throbbing and feelings of heat and swelling. It was obviously necessary to feel that my appendage was damaged (if we didn’t feel the pain, we wouldn’t be alerted to a problem).

Right, so now that I was alerted to my body’s distress call and felt the busy little repair army coming to do its job, I wondered, ‘so what is the point of still feeling the pain? I know I’m hurt — I’ve done all I can to ‘doctor’ myself…why can’t we just ‘switch off’?’

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart … Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” ~ Carl Jung

Then, by some weird miraculous notion, I started to move my consciousness into my heart center. It was kind of spontaneous and I went with it. I focused all my awareness in the space of my chest and ‘thought’ from there. The pain subsided until it was completely gone and all I was left with was the throb.

I scanned my thumb with my heart mind and was still alert to the pounding (almost as if the body is still reminding you that there is a ‘crisis’ being seen to) but without the pain.

Hallelujah!

For the next half hour I sat switching from mind (experiencing the pain) to heart (no pain), just to make sure I wasn’t delusional. It worked every time!

Alchemy and the Heart — Turning Our Experiences into Gold!

It’s still early days for me and my new found heart/mind appreciation. I’m not professing to now be in full control of pain but I sure got a glimpse of how our amazing system works, or should work.

Pain is necessary to alert us to something that is out of alignment (this can be taken both physically or mentally/emotionally) but could it be that we don’t have to suffer as a consequence? That using our mind to do all the thinking is actually causing us unnecessary suffering?

It’s something to ponder, or should I say, something we should at least try to explore or sense. within ourselves — shifting from perpetual overthinking to heart-centered awareness.

Could it be that our heart-centers are our own personal Philosophers Stone — alchemizing situations to their most basic core?

I’ve sensed that our hearts are divination tools to the truth. When we drop into our hearts we operate from completeness — from the wholeness of our sacred soul.

“The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image.” ~ Charles W. Chestnut

It’s pure bliss to drop into our hearts — when it is done effectively it feels like everything is as it should be and that the only truth is unconditional, unequivocal love.

We are spirit having a corporeal experience therefore it is necessary to be mindful of our thoughts and the physical actions we need to take in order to sustain our material endeavor. However, strive to trust the innate wisdom of the heart and use it as often as possible as a balancing, neutralizing force in our lives.

“If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.” ~ Chinese Proverb

As I go further and further down this rabbit hole that I labelled the ‘Rock Art Series‘, I am beginning to uncover a quantum field of bizarre and amazing coincidences and realizations about myself and my role that I find myself stepping into (there will be more about this in next weeks blog, as I go mixing the melting pot of Harmonic Convergence and visual healing therapy).

This painting maxed my abstract potential and what I thought was achievable through a state of ‘mindless’ painting — it brought out something in me that I will call guided art.

Who’s guiding me?

God alone knows! My soul? My guides? The man on the moon? Jeff Buckley himself (for those of you who don’t know, Jeff died in a drowning accident in 1997)? Or a mixture of all? Probably…

Tapping into the Matrix

For more information about Jeff Buckley, click on this picture.

There is an information highway in the ether — a kind of universal computer hard-drive that stores everything and anything for posterity. I think this could be a good description for what I’m trying to tap into with this art.

How do you capture the essence of the message from the musician and put it onto canvas?

Music is multi-dimensional and speaks straight to the soul. When you are able to pull this kind of cosmic sound down into the third dimension, it has a powerful effect on the listener. See an article about‘The 8th Chakra and the Universal Heart’ HERE.

Now, the question is: Can an artist tune into the message in the music and translate it as art?

Well, here it goes:

The Emotions of the Music

These are the emotions that came up for me as I was painting.

Pure

Prints Available Now

Heartfelt

Raw

Desire

Earthy

Sensuality/Sexuality

Basic

Simple Beauty

Tactile/Touching

I wrote all these words down on the side of the canvas as they were arising in me. For those of you who know who Jeff Buckley is, you’ll probably be nodding your head and saying ‘yeah, that’s him alright’.

For those who don’t know him…let’s start you off with this song (although it is not his original song, he was reported to have said that it is a song he wished he had written as it encapsulates all that he is — and he performs it admirably):

I was completely ‘in the zone’ with this one — otherwise what I referred to as my ‘mindless state’. Working purely from the heart and feeling rather than linearizing and thinking it through.

The first thing I did was spray paint a big red heart onto the canvas…I stood back and thought, ‘a bit kitsch, isn’t it?’. Then I decided to trust the process and see where it led me to. At that point, I thought that even if I painted over the heart, I suppose it will still be imbued with that heart presence — the heart would remain the core of the painting. As it turned out, the heart became the focal point.

I started mucking about with clay paint (a kind of textured acrylic and a lot of fun to get your hands in! Really squishy and messy). I used a palette knife to apply it to the canvas.

I felt as if I wasn’t alone, it didn’t freak me out or anything, I just went with it. I then dropped the palette knife and started getting my hands into this squelchy clay-type paint (I think this is the point where I wrote down the ‘earthy’ emotion — being grounded, getting ‘real’). I felt as if my hands were being guided, moving over the canvas in waves of delicate caresses which led on to vehement scratches (very sensuous, darling). I have to admit it was a bit like the scene from the movie ‘Ghost’ — you know that part when Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze were sitting down at the potter’s wheel getting all down and dirty in the clay. To coin one of Jim Carey’s phrases, I was starting to get a bit swampy in my pants.

The whole time I was painting, I would stop every now and again to take a photo for the pictorial process blog. Imagine my surprise, when in one of the pictures I saw an isolated, huge orb (see picture to your right)! I give you my word that it is not part of the painting even though there are other ‘orb-like’ circles, those are gold spray-paint ‘blob’s and the orb is white. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the orb phenomenon, please click here. Otherwise, in a very small nutshell: Some people believe it is the camera’s ability to pick up on what we can’t see with the naked eye — yes a bit like photographing spooks, or rather, balls of energy (UFE — he he…unidentified flying energy). Others feel it is just light bouncing off dust to create this effect. What they don’t know is that my studio is a dust bomb and if this was the case, the photographs would be Orb City. Besides, I rather like the story where Jeff is helping me to create this work of art — nobody wants to be alone at the party, you know what I mean?

Close up of the orb – as you can see it is completely circular with a kind of aura that surrounds it, completely different to the gold painted orb below it.

When I re-sprayed the heart and saw it dripping in and mixing with the clay paint, I got a real feeling of being ’embodied’. You know, the whole tethering your soul to your body type-thing?

I then went on to add some words that I had torn out of a magazine. I’ve not really done this before so had no idea how it would turn out. I like the effect and just happened to synchronously stumble upon the most relevant-to-Jeff descriptive words imaginable. Like: ‘Shaken, Stirred’; ‘Stay in touch’; ‘Beautiful’; ‘History and Heroes’; ‘I think I’m on the planet Mars!’ (lol, don’t ask!); ‘lovers, this one’s for you!’; Made with unrestricted access’…you get the picture (I hope!).

I then added on some finishing swirls and details to embellish and make the painting really ‘pop’ with pleasure.

And that’s it! You’ve got the low down of the inspiration behind the art.

What does this painting say to you? You can be honest, I promise I won’t bite or take anything personally (just leave your name and street address where I can find you alongside your comment! lol).

What does Jeff Buckley’s music mean to you?

If you didn’t know who he was, did you feel enticed to listen to his songs?

If yes, what did you think?

Did you feel that there was no need to listen because you ‘got it’ straight away?

What emotions arise when you listen to him or look at this painting?

Are they congruent?

Spill your beans, please. After all, I told you I got all swampy in my pants (the ice has been broken and melted all at the same time) — you can’t get more personal than that!

Hitting the Nail on the Head

To get the interpretation ball rolling — I sent the final picture to a musician friend of mine who didn’t know much about the artist or his music.

I found what he came up with remarkable for someone who wasn’t familiar with Jeff Buckley. It’s as if the information of the music was transported through the painting. Perhaps, as was proposed earlier in this blog, artists can tune into the message behind the music and translate it through visual arts. I’ll let you be the judge…

This is what my friend had to say:

“One definitely does see the emotional – hmmm… turmoil(?) this guy had during his life. What music do you suggest I listen to to get a deeper understanding of it?

The silver foil on the left reminds me of those staples they used to use on operations patients… i.e. a broken but patched up heart, one that’s been severely injured and not healed completely but very good physicians.

The green hand is definitely somehow connected with it, perhaps someone slipping away that was responsible for it — losing someone? Trying to hold on or not quite being able to touch the heart

The (hand)print ON the heart is interesting too — someone definitely left their touch on his heart.

The (hand)print on the right is almost like a hand in the background — a shadow, someone in his life that he never really have his heart to or allowed to get to know his heart.

The silhouette above that (looks like of a person) sort of underlines that message — especially because it looks like he’s looking away from the heart, the heart dripping very obviously also indicates an injured heart.

All the noise, colour and excitement below the heart, to me, is like the experiences and life he had, on which his heart is based yet nothing that grounds him or supports his heart. It’s up there in the air, surrounded by chaos — although beautiful chaos at times.

I wonder if the damaged heart has something to do with the experience below in the words “stay in touch”?

“lovers, this one’s for you” is very interesting as it’s on the “non-accessible” or shadowy side of the heart.

I love the reddish brown eye on the bottom left — something that’s weaved its way into his life that’s severely affected it (negatively)…tearing away at his foundation?”

“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you.” — Eckhart Tolle

Where is my Pluck?

To have pluck is to be spirited with a determined courage. Its very definition is inspiring — bravery, nerve, valour, guts and heart — but how can we truly embody this deliciously tantalizing trait?

If you feel you’ve lost your pluck or, perhaps, never had it in the first place — a good place to begin to look for it is within.

It cannot be found, with any sustainable long-term results, at:

The gym

The latest copy of ‘Heat’ magazine

The TV/gaming console or any other distracting electronic device

The bottom of a bottle

That new nightclub around the corner

The mall (note to self — especially the shoe shop)

Don’t get me wrong — there is a certain amount of nerve that comes from wearing shoes that elevate you a couple of inches.

I’m not saying you need to stop doing any of these things if they make you truly happy, I’m just pointing out that the things on the list above can be titanic distractions if you are seriously trying to pursue better living.

There’s a bit of magnificence in you and it shines like a diamond, however, unlike a lump of coal enduring vast amounts of stress to produce a diamond — yours is innate. It just might be covered in layers of soot.

Fight-or-Flight Syndrome

We Homo Sapiens have an inbuilt radar system called ‘fight-or-flight’. It can be pretty useful in dangerous situations.

Say for instance, you are being chased by a lion (it surprisingly doesn’t happen often, I know — not even in South Africa, where I live) but for the sake of a good metaphor, I’ll use it.

The chances that you stick around to face your foe and brave out the storm are slim. It would be far more prudent to take flight (preferably up a very high tree). This kind of scarpering in the face of certain death is essential for survival.

To fight it — say perhaps you were armed with a rifle or a kilogram of catnip — may also be wise if there was a high possibility of success (i.e. living to tell the extraordinary tale to your grandchildren).

The only problem with this ingrained sense of preservation is it get’s in the way of our emotional and spiritual growth.

The Human Duress Barometer

The fight-or-flight response is also known as acute stress response.

Essentially, this response prepares the body to either fight or flee any potential threat — no matter what it is. It is also important to note that the response can be triggered due to both real and imaginary threats.

A lot of us have lost our magnificence and have given into the stress of trying to ‘stay alive’ or play it safe.

Uncovering Your Diamond

It wasn’t really my intention to get you to accept your death in this article (although it certainly wouldn’t hurt), it’s more about finding your innate wisdom and knowing that all is well within you — your diamond core essence, living from your heart center.

To stand in love is to fear nothing — there simply isn’t enough space for fear.

In the Face of Inevitable Doom

I was in a discussion where two mature chaps, whom I happen to love and respect dearly, were debating what they would do in the face of a tsunami.

I said that it would be more compelling to stand your ground, knowing that you are about to enter a new phase in the chapter of your existence and to face the wall of water with a sense of awe and acceptance — to which one of the gentlemen concurred.

He said it would be better to face your death with love and peace in your heart and to enjoy the power of nature as the water swept you away. What an amazing perspective — to actually enjoy your own death!

The other lad, however, was shaking his head at us, not quite believing what he was hearing. He stated that he would turn tail and head for the hills! He couldn’t quite understand why we would not want to save our lives.

We retorted by stating that if death was inevitable, the only thing you can do is to truly embody the experience of passing on.

If you can do this with a sense of security about who you are, embracing your divinity, and facing impending doom with reverence and love in your heart — you will die according to your own terms and not in fear.

When Mind and Heart Work Hand-in-Hand

We all need our minds to navigate and to add some kind of structure to our lives but, all too often, our thinking carries us away on paths that don’t serve us. Our heart, on the other hand, is our intuition — our own personal guide.

If we can process situations through our heart first and then our heads, we would be living our luminosity.

To find the magnificence of your soul is to uncover heart-based living. To truly encapsulate your divine essence that is immortal, wise and glorious.

You are more than a mammal walking on the face of the earth. You are more than a statistic on a governmental consensus sheet.

You are a unique and heavenly expression that, with a bit of spit and polish, can radiate and cut through the heart of any situation to get to the deepest of truths.

You are pure magnificence wrapped up in a corporeal vessel.

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity.”

The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it’s all that matters. ~Audrey Hepburn

You want to know the secret, right? You clicked on this article because you’re itching to know what this underground, hush-hush truth to living a brilliant and fulfilling life is, don’t you?

You may initially be disappointed to know that it is not money, good looks, fame and fortune or bending over backwards in philanthropic or selfless pursuit.

Now, although there is no judgment in having any of these features in your life, there is but one simple attribute you can muster up in this very moment that will bring you into alignment. The many masters that walked the earth, did so with peace and content in their hearts because they knew this secret.

Something that is so ridiculously obvious to some but not so apparent to others. ‘Oh what is it!’ I hear you cry. You’re just going to have to bear with me a little longer. Something as fruitfully juicy as what I am about to reveal, deserves a big build up!

The Here and Now

Here we are incarnated on a planet called Earth. Humanity in its apparent prime — a species so trumped up with itself that in our pursuit to strive for greatness we miss a fundamental principle to life and existence. A principle so far out for some that it is overlooked and brushed off as bohemian nonsense — the right to life and a reverence for existence.

The what to who and the who to what?

Imagine a world where everyone had the exact same amount of love and respect for EVERY life form as they do for their own self (assuming that you have mastered the ability of self-love, that is). But, ah, here bares the rub!

Self-Love or Bust!

Respect yourself and other will respect you. ~Confucius

When you attain that love for self that I’m speaking of, you usually automatically begin to love and respect others as well as every other form of life you encounter. I am even including what is deemed inanimate objects here. Everything on this planet has a presence, from the rocks, plants and animals to the soil, worms and the very core of the earth itself.

If you cannot see or feel this to be true, this article will not resonate with you. If you feel just one iota of truth in this, please read on.

The Secret Revealed

Love is what binds us, respect is what unites us. To have love and respect for all life forms guarantees you an excellent quality of life because you will be walking around in sheer reverence to all you come across. There will never be a dull or uninspired moment. Why?

Because when you bump into even a stranger, you will see God in his/her eyes. You will look upon a flower and see the cosmos within the fold of its petals. You will sit up against a tree and feel its life energy resounding through your core and you will sit upon the earth and feel her heart-beat pumping out the rhythm of all life.

Hippy Thinking or Revolutionary Insight?

Some of you may be thinking that I’m some deranged and dangerous hippy, you know, one of those people that doesn’t even want to eat a vegetable because they feel they are killing the plant.

No, not at all. What I am suggesting is that no matter what you do, do it with love and respect. If you want to eat an animal, consume it with love and gratitude in your heart for its life and sacrifice. When you press a ripe and bursting strawberry to your lips, give your utmost attention to its life force and presence (the sunlight that made it grow, the water that gave it its succulence, the earth that housed it). You see nothing ever truly ‘dies’, it is transmuted.

Whether You or the Animal is Lunch

The animal becomes a part of your biology as does the strawberry. You become part of the earth again when it is your time to move on (or in the unusual circumstance that you decide to go on a rather unsuccessful safari, you may become a lion’s appetizer and therefore be at one with the lion and eventually come out as the fertilizer for the earth). Life really has got a sense of continuity (and humor), no matter which way you perceive it!

Find that humor in life, find the peculiarity of oneness with life and find the love for being a part of this unique system — life. See yourself in everything and everything will reflect the wholeness of your being. Feel the life force in everything and shift into unity consciousness. Do this and you will step into love and bliss.

“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” — John Lennon

A Non-Religious Point of View

I just want to say from the off that I do not subscribe to any religion and am not pushing any particular doctrine in this article, I am merely purveying the teachings of which I am most familiar with.

I have a great respect for all the various religious prophets.

From the time I was a young girl I have found the church and religious doctrine a very hard concept to grapple with. My father insisted I attend church every Sunday up until the age of sixteen, something I resented him for, but now, find to be not only a very synchronistic part of my life but a necessary part of my greater understanding.

Sampling Tasty Tit-Bits from the Melting Pot

When I hit my teens, I started to sniff around gathering insights to other religions and spiritual practices. I found that there is actually a common thread amongst them, one sacred truth to be shared – love.

“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.”— Muhammad Ali

Although I never liked the power and control the church had over its congregation, I always thought there was some very spiritually sound advice in the Bible. Some things did have their roots planted in truth, but I also felt that other teachings did not and had the air of control and suppression.

The Anointed One

The parables of Jesus Christ always felt like he had a greater understanding of the intrinsic nature of humanity and the way this world should be experienced – especially when he spoke of our innate divinity – being the sons and daughters of God.

I feel his teachings were deeply rooted in an inborn truth. The meaning of which translates to a profound spiritual morality that addresses 4 fundamental core emotions and practices for humanity:

Compassion,

understanding,

non-judgment and

love.

If you want to solve all of the world’s problems, start practicing this list. See divinity in others and you are well on your way to mastery. I wrote an article a while ago addressing the fear-based myths about God and how to view humanity as you would view your own family and loved ones — you can read about that HERE.

Your Veracity Determines Your Reality

Our truths are buried deep inside, and the whole process of enlightenment is to shine a light on them. When we do, we bring ourselves into complete clarity, alignment and wholeness. This is not done by adding to ourselves, it is achieved by going within. A good place to start is to adopt regular meditational practice (5 Easy Steps to Meditation) and to start exercising trust of your gut instincts.

“The flowering of love is meditation.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jesus was a regular ‘hippy’ spreading the news of love for one another. If you clear all the dogma away around Jesus his message was simple:

‘Unconditional and Unequivocal Love’

We are Divine expressions experiencing the miracle of perceived natural life in the universe.

This life experience is a journey of self-discovery and should be that of joy, love, abundance, peace and wisdom. You are in the driver’s seat of your life – steer it in the direction you want to head for not in the direction someone else programmed into your GPS.

Your life, your choices.

Source Energy and Experiential Life

The Hindus call the eternal, unchanging infinite that is beyond this universe, Brahman. They refer to this reality/world as Maya – the personification that the material world is merely an illusion.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” — Albert Einstein

This illusory reality world concept can also be seen in the Matrix Trilogy, as humans are literally ‘plugged in’ to a computer-generated world (God bless the Wachowski siblings for making this movie and giving us such an amazing example of this very difficult theory!).

We seem to have lost the ability to see the forest for the trees. We go around feeling a pit in our stomachs, that feeling that something is missing.

What is missing is your connection to Source. The ultimate illusion is that you are lacking it. You aren’t missing anything, you have just forgotten that it exists – and it exists within you. Your heart center holds the vibration and frequency of the Creators love, the only true building block to your inevitable life’s manifestations.

Feeling Lost?

Home is where yourheart is means that anywhere you are is your home – this could even refer to the planet you now find yourself upon.

You are never alone, because where you are, there is God. Yearning to be somewhere or to be someone else is a self-defeating and self-destructive rehearsal. Make peace with where you are, who you are and when you are and you will find your place in this world theatre – where you are the writer, director and actor of your very own stage production.

You are the Drop, so Own the Ocean!

We are all Creators living out our creation, we seem to have forgotten that. The ripples, that were born of the one drop, changed their size, and eventually went so far out into the ocean they forgot they were the ocean to begin with – the Source.

Enjoy your life and make your home at the core of your being.

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”― Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version

Can you believe it, science rearing its technical head in a spiritual blog? Actually, the bridge between spirituality and science is closing in rapidly.

Let’s put this simply because I don’t want your attention to wane: Light creates form. There you go, in a nutshell!

Ha, but what does this have to do with spirituality?

Everything!

We are spirit having a human or ‘material’ experience. We are incarnate — in form in a dimension that requires atoms (which are pretty much free-floating molecules) to coagulate into matter to make up ‘stuff’ (I know, my scientific prowess is amazing — I’m surprised New Science magazine hasn’t lassoed me to write for their journal yet).

Suffice to say that we need this ‘stuff’, or, more eloquently, solid matter to navigate this third dimension of physical, tangible reality.

Okay, now I know you’re an intelligent bunch so you’re still with me…

The sun’s rays are transported to Earth through the ether and provides organisms with light energy which they convert into chemical energy — a process otherwise known as photosynthesis.

Even the word ‘photosynthesis’ is profound — it is derived from the Greek photo-, “light”, and synthesis, “putting together”.

Without light, plants won’t grow and without plants, herbivores would die and without herbivores, then carnivores and omnivores die — you get the picture.

Are you beginning to put things together here? Light = putting together.

Right, so Where is Love in all of This?

Love — although it can’t be proven in a laboratory — is the glue that binds existence together for us spiritual beings. It’s what makes life interesting and adds to our staying power here.

Without love, what would be the point, right?

Ergo, in my humble opinion, love is what keeps us on this planet. It is what holds the form together, the egg to our cake — the binding ingredient of all biological life.

So light provides us with form and love keeps us in form — interesting, huh?

Let’s Put this Together, Shall We?

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In conclusion to this waffle, I’d like to sum this up by adding; there is another wise saying in spiritual circles — Namaste — which means ‘I bow to the God in you’ — it’s beautiful and shows respect. It is a recognition of the divine spark or aspect of the creator/God/source within another.

However, of late, we have this new greeting to contend with, ‘love and light’.

Now, if you like of course, you can say this with some conviction and actually mean ‘may you be held lovingly in good form’. Okay, that sounds ridiculous.

Let’s see — how about summing it up with this ‘love and light’ meaning:

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.“~Dumbledore (Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling)

Get Me Out Of Here!

We are smack bang in the middle of tumultuous, chaotic and confusing times. With that kind of energy flying about, we have to take what goes with it — the many peaks and troughs in our day-to-day existence. How does one draw on positivity when you feel like you’ve been sucked through a black hole and just got spat out the other end?

Yes, we all have these days. You wake up and you, for no really good reason, feel like thumbing a lift off the planet and onto the next passing UFO (if you do decide to do this, remember to take along your hand-towel, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy manual and eat lots of salted peanuts).

Enough Tom-Foolery

Let’s get back to the brass tacks of riding out your low-wave storms. The first thing to remember is you are not alone. There are many people out there experiencing these highs and lows, just like you. Enlightenment or awareness does not automatically present you with a ‘get out of jail free’ card. No, you just need to know how to ride the tsunami when it hits.

Second thing to bear in mind is that ‘this too shall pass’. Sometimes when we experience the dark night of the soul, we feel like we are in an emotional abyss and nothing will ever be the same again.

This is just another wave that needs surfing, you will ride it out and you will live to see another day. Just hold tight onto that surfboard and apply copious amounts of sunblock (metaphorically speaking, in real-time just eat lots of chocolate — that usually does the trick! Not only does wholesome organic or dark chocolate release happy endorphins but a friend of mine recently told me that it also has grounding effects).

“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” ~Benjamin Franklin

Stocking Your Cupboard Full of Happiness

Okay, so we all have our dark moments, but what can we do to get ourselves back on track besides stuff our faces with choco-licious treats or sumptuously sipping at a glass of merlot?

Gratitude is important and heart-centered living is the future. So with this in mind, how do we expand our feelings of love and gratitude?

Build up reservoirs of things that make you HAPPY and GRATEFUL by remembering:

Loved Ones — think of all the people in your life that make living a joy. Picture their happy, smiling faces and feel the effect of their love in your heart center.

Play Music — from Bach to the Beatles, we all have our favorite songs that cheer us up and get a spark lit under our backsides. Dust off those LP’s or plug in your iPod! Have a dance around your living room floor, shake that booty and kick up those heels! Or you can drift off to Debussy and have some quiet, reflective and pensive moments of sheer bliss. Don’t underestimate the power of frequency, let music be your bridge to aural ecstasy.

Precious Memories — bring out that old scrapbook of magical magnificent memoirs. Remind yourself of how many moments you’ve had in your life that were full and extraordinary.

Encounters with Animals — for those of us lucky enough to have had or currently have pets, you will know what I’m talking about when I say that they have the most remarkable way of lifting your spirits. Go spend a bit of time with them. If you don’t have any pets, go take a walk where you know people hang out with their pets. Most animal owners don’t mind a bit if you stroke their animals. Cats also have an astonishing talent to balance your aura with their purring — it has a vibrational resonance that heals any ‘leakages’.

Nature — yes, you know I like to hit this one home every now and again in my blogs. Go be in nature! It is calming, grounding and balancing. If you are depressed, it is the most inexpensive cure to your quandaries and it sure beats any pill your doctor is offering you.

Count Your Blessings — do you have a roof over your head? A comfortable bed to sleep in? People who love and support you? Clothes to keep you warm? Food in the fridge? A functional body? These are all things we take for-granted but are wonderful markers to realign us with all there is to be thankful for and can be the very push you may need to get you out of a wallowing hole.

Laugh Your Head Off — another inexpensive cure to all dis-ease. Put on some side-splitting comedy, something that you know will boost your morale. A good pant-wetting episode every now and again is the best remedy for being on this planet right now. No-one likes a sour-puss, so make sure your face is creased with laughter lines.

Go forth and make merry.

“Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.”~Paul Hawken

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. ~Jim Morrison

Shooting Straight from the Hip

Fear is a mighty, malevolent and strong emotion. Why does it have so much potency in our lives?

The media, governments and big business corporations galvanize us into believing or buying into so many illusory reasons to fear the worst case scenarios (as made up by them). They usually claim to hold the answer to all your problems too – not in the least bit suspicious, right?

We also need to take responsibility for giving credence to and creating our own fears, literally stifling ourselves with things to worry about.

Every time you give into fear you feed negativity and give it more power. In fact, you give away your own power in the process. Fear is a choice, like it or not.

There are, of course, many different types of fear but they are all grounded in the act of giving your power away. When we come up against any fear, we are actually being presented with a chance from the universe to be brave and face up to it. Get to the nitty-gritty and uncover the truth about why we are so afraid or uncomfortable.

Stripping Fear

Let’s get to the core of anxiety. What is fear?

In order to work this emotion back into the light, we need to find its polar opposite. This, simply put, is LOVE. When you inject love into fear it dissipates. It has no stronghold in the presence of love. But how do I start projecting love when my knees are knocking?

Well, let’s address what is called heart-centered living — I’m sure you’ve all probably heard that word by now. People are talking about it a lot and as airy-fairy and lace-clad as it may seem — there is a solid foundation of truth in it.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Heart-Based Quickening

When you work through your heart, based primarily upon how you are feeling about something (as opposed to working through your mind and how you think about something), you are guided by a more truthful resonance of picking up subtle nuances from your surroundings rather than being directed by what reason dictates.

So even though we are in need of our minds and pensiveness, we have been dominated by left-brain thinking for centuries. A shift is occurring, not to totally disregard our thoughts but to channel through the heart and then process through the mind. In other words, not just to go straight to the head and bypass our hearts or how we are feeling intuitively.

Rationality can be useful but it has, in some cases, left our instinctive abilities to wither in its heated presence. Sometimes our ‘logic’ has actually hindered and held us back from following our bliss because ‘society dictates otherwise’ or ‘the norm is to…’ — be careful of whose ‘norm’ you are conceding to.

It’s that age old conflict between science and spirituality (left-brain versus right-brain) — the solution to which is using both in balance.

3 Key factors to transmute fear are remembering that:

1. FEAR

Don’t buy into it. Think of all the things you have feared in the past — did any come true? If yes, did you survive it? I take it you did if you are reading this. The energy or vibration of fear draws that which you worry about closer to you. Have you ever been with someone who is not afraid of dogs but you are. When a dog comes running at you both, it goes for you, my sweaty-palmed friend, not your companion. Animals, as you probably know, can sense fear — so can the universe and the universe is impartial. It acquiesces to what it thinks you desire via your frequency output. Your emotions are pointing towards fear? Expect life to become frightening then. The only thing you should fear is fear itself.

2. LOVE IS ABSOLUTE

Get used to being tuned into your feelings and steering them to safer shores. When you are in fear, inject some love into your aura by thinking of someone you love, your favorite pet, the infectious chuckle of your child or grandchild or a blissful memory. This is how you get to expand on the feeling of love in the face of fear. Show fear that you have too much love in your heart. Fear is a mental construct in the absence of love. Trust your instincts.

3. YOU ARE IN CONTROL

Short, sweet and to the point. If you want to be self-empowered then the first things you need are awareness and the ability to take responsibility for your actions. These two fundamental principles are gateways for you to realize your inherent potential. You are a co-creator, take responsibility for that and take control.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ~Nelson Mandela

We are living in chaotic and tumultuous times. We have a plethora of information pumped out at us from every channel, be it media, religion, government or our social groups.

You must be this, act like that, live like us — you know the story but you are feeling overwhelmed and a definite sense of lack. That pit in your stomach that tells you something is not quite right.

The truth is that when you filter through all this garbage and sift out the gems, you are.

Hey! You left that sentence hanging — you can’t do that!

Yes, I can and I did it for a good reason. You just are — the ‘I am that I am’, nothing more, nothing less. Everything else that is external and trying to tug at your attention is a mere distraction to the call that comes from within.

That feeling of

being alone in the world

not being understood

not even understanding yourself

feeling depressed

emotional swings

always struggling to be happy

or to have enough

the need to be recognized or acknowledged

the fear of not being good enough

Do these attributes sound familiar?

Welcome to Planet Earth, the Galaxies no.1 Classroom for Misfits and Lost Souls!

What is worrisome is that the medical profession starts to label all these conditions and you are now marked as ‘chronically depressed’, ‘ADHD’ or ‘bi-polar’ (yeah, aren’t we all! This is the realm of duality), the list goes on. Then the medicating starts and what is treated is suppressed and the little emotion we have left is dulled-down to a drip.

Does Medicine Come Cheap?

It should but alas it doesn’t, especially not if you are in the business of making money from illness. If the drug corporations and governments truly had people’s welfare at heart, medicine and healing practices would not literally have to cost you and arm or a leg.

Keep ‘em Sick

The more illnesses recognized by the profession the better — the more money to be made. Have you ever looked at the contra-indications of medicine? It’s a laugh! And it’s all ‘legal’. I especially love how most medication warns that this may result in death — no shit, Sherlock!

Be careful of labels when the condition is emotional. Ply it with drugs if you want to sweep things under the rug, maybe we’ll see you back here in another life to work it out, or maybe you can deal with it today.

I’m not suggesting you throw away all your pills right now. Just look into what you really need and what can be replaced with a good eating and exercise plan (never mind a good ‘thought’ plan).

Modern medicine has given us value, a bridge from illness to wellness in many cases. However, sometimes the training wheels need to come off so we can realize our fullest potential. To continuously take drugs is not going to do your body any long-term good. Use medication sparingly, if at all.I’m not suggesting you throw away all your pills right now.

The Real Good News

The upshot of all this is that there is a non-expensive cure to any disease, mental or physical. It’s called AWARENESS.

Awareness or enlightenment doesn’t automatically conjure up a cloud for you to float on and dictate gospels to your scribe. You are still going to have the odd bout of anxiety, depression or ailment — the difference is you are going to be able to identify it immediately and start to work on the remedy instead of having a pity party and feel helpless.

You Are in the Driver’s Seat!

You are always in control of your life circumstance. You are not a human being having a spiritual experience, you are a soul having a corporeal experience. You are a master of matter, you have just forgotten.

The world is experiencing what the spiritually inclined would call a consciousness shift and what science would refer to as evolution of species.

We are being upgraded, if you like. Humanity have been sleeping sheep for centuries (no wonder we count sheep in order to fall asleep) and the time is ripe to WAKE UP! Can you hear the galaxies alarm clock going off?

The alarm has been going off for quite some time now, unfortunately some have continuously hit the snooze button. Fret not, the galaxy is readying a pale of ice-cold water and is swirling the bucket as we speak — best to wake up now rather than wake up cold, wet and in shock.

What Can I Do to Fix Myself?

Oh, thank heavens! I thought you’d never ask. The answer is simple: Remember.

To remember means to re-member — to become a part of the whole again.

More specifically, you need to remember that:

You have a spark of the divine that lives within your sacred temple you refer to as your body — treat your body with reverence and respect

You are in control of your destiny and not a victim of your fate

You came here to experience the great shift of consciousness and to be a part of it

You are not only whole but a part of the whole, see the divine en-masse — in your brothers and sisters all over the world

Fear is an illusion meant to suppress and contain

You were never meant to be contained or suppressed

You can rise above any limitations

If God is omnipresent, then you are also a part of God (this is especially for those of you who have been or are indoctrinated)

Your planet is also a part of God and she holds the cure to any ailment in lost traditions — look to plants and natural, wholesome foods to cure your sick bodies

Your thoughts and intent dictate the unfolding of your life — this is why positive thinking, prayer, meditation and affirmations are potent and can also heal many aspects of your life — body and soul

Love is the only way forward — it is going to mend the past, present and the future

Break free of your limiting beliefs and join the uprising of the soul — become a part of Awakened Humanity.

Does it not feel wonderful to be the catalyst that activates the pay it forward system? What is paying it forward? For those of you who don’t know — it is when you perform an act of kindheartedness with no need for reward, the receiver of that action then pays it forward to someone else.

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” ― Rumi

This creates a cycle of goodwill that can, hopefully, snowball — spreading out into the world at large.

Do you feel like starting an avalanche of joy today?

How Can I Be of Service?

Here is a simple list of things that you can start to incorporate into your every day life, scattering those seeds of love and bliss. I guarantee that the pay-off will be huge — just watch how you start affecting people’s lives.

Smile at people — especially the ones that look grumpy. They are the very ones who probably need your beam of sunlight more than anything!

Hug people — most people are tactile and appreciate some physical contact. It could mean the world of difference to them if you hugged them instead of just standing there like a great lump!

Genuine compliments — don’t hold back on this one but don’t force it either. There are so many times when we think something nice about a person but never actually open our mouths to voice it. Just one little spoken observation could make someone’s day.

Practice kindness — be gentle and giving in all you do. Don’t only reserve yourself for friends and family. Treat everyone you meet as If you were long-lost buddies. Do this with animals too; they just thrive on unconditional love.

Be impeccable with your word — think before you speak. Try to filter out your blurbs. Sometimes we say too much or let slip hurtful things that we can’t retract, so be mindful of your dialogue at all times. People will notice this and want the same quality.

Thoughtfulness — bring tokens of love and gratitude whenever you visit or bump into someone. I learnt this from Deepak Chopra. He said that this can be in the form of a silent prayer or blessing, a bunch of hand-picked flowers or a poem. It needn’t cost anything but the thought. People really do appreciate your consideration.

Greet – always try to say a cheerful ‘hello’ to passers-by, shop assistants or anyone who catches your eye. This is a simple yet effective practice that works because you are acknowledging their existence.

Acknowledgement — ‘I See You’

I would like to share a story with you. I was walking in the streets of Cape Town when a homeless man on a bench asked me for some change.

I stopped and started looking in my bag for some money. While I was scouring my untidy bag for loose coins he started to mumble something like ‘sorry for wasting my time’ to which I replied that he could never waste my time.

He looked quite startled at this and said that I had got him wrong, he had actually said that most people tell him that he is wasting their time and was really thankful that I had even stopped to talk to him, let alone give him money.

I did manage to fish out a few coins for him, as I handed it over I apologized as it wasn’t much. To this he replied, ‘it is not the money that has made my day, it is the fact that you even stopped to acknowledge my presence.’ I held back a bit to talk with him and he said something else that I found remarkable but understood him completely.

Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover

He said that he was not ‘this’ as he pointed to his disheveled clothes — referring that he was not a vagrant.

He said that he was a soul on a journey, just like everyone else, and he has chosen this path to learn something that he still needs to figure out. I found this man to be a truly courageous and enlightened human being who taught me something very valuable that day.

Do not pass anyone by, make sure that the very least you give is your attention — this can be their gold nugget.

When we are in nature, we are in our natural state — you could even say we are in our ‘element’. And that is synchronously why it feels so joyful to go for a walk on the beach, stroll through a meadow or simply sit under a tree.

We are being reconnected with our state of inexplicable bliss.

Why Is This So?

There is an excellent documentary called ‘Dirt’, which outlines soil’s effect on every aspect of our lives, including our survival as a species. The simple truth of this is that we are all made up of the dirt of the earth and will return there some day. We are one and the same and share an incalculable bond with the planet we reside upon.

The very ingredients of our bodies are made up from the food you consume, which comes from the earth. When we honor and respect our planet, we honor and respect ourselves.

The house you live in, the car you drive, the computer you sit at, the ground that supports you is made possible by the world you inhabit.

So What?

Well, this doesn’t mean you have to become a tree-hugger (not unless you feel the calling!) — all I want you to think about is your connection to our beautiful, resourceful Mother Earth.

When we enjoy our lives and take advantage of her many wonders, we rekindle that which is innate within us — the connection we have to all life, the oneness of being part of the whole.

There is a bond that is severed when we forget about nature and the true joy it can bring. When we feel disconnected, being in nature can be the very inexpensive cure we need to re-align that which is out of atunement — which then becomes atonement (at-one-ment), reparation or making amends with your divine system.

7 Tips to Get You Started

Below is a list of things you can start today to get you into alignment with your true self. They are designed to truly get you back into the ‘now’ moment and to be present in your body. Explore your senses that so many take for granted, and have fun!

Here are 7 priceless things that your life has to offer:

Touch — Taking a walk amongst trees, touching the rough bark. Get back in contact with your sense of feeling textures and surfaces.

Smell — Sitting on a park bench or in your garden, can you identify all the different aromas? Can you smell the sweet scent of the flowers hanging on a gentle breeze? The time has never been more suitable to stop and smell the roses!

Feel — Strolling on the beach, letting the water wash over your bare feet. Feel the coarse sand underfoot. Walk bare-foot through a patch of wet grass and feel that freshness seep into your soles.

Taste — Biting into a freshly picked berry or a sprig of parsley — truly taste the freshness and zing of natural produce.

Beauty — Appreciating the world around you — look at how glorious the wing of a butterfly is! There are so many splendors to be taken in, try to keep your eyes open for magnificence — I promise you, you will be amazed at how much entertainment is all around you in the natural world.

Hear — Listening to the sound of bees buzzing about their business — now when last can you say you stopped to welcome that precious aural delight? Take note of all the sounds around you, from the wind brushing through the leaves to the birds chirping out a synchronized melody.

Vision — Marveling at a spectacular sunset or the dawn of a sunrise — can you remember lying on your back on the freshly mown lawn, just gazing up at the stars or trying to spot a shape in the clouds?

I hope you are clambering for your door this very moment, just itching to get out there!

The 1 simple truth to enlightenment is…ah! But if I told you that now, I would spoil the rest of this article for you. You’ll have to just soldier on ’til the end. Let’s begin with:

One Big Happy Family Theory

I read an interesting article on the internet that claimed a demographer created a probability model theorising that a child born in the 1940s in England, if tracing his lineage back to around the late fifteenth century would have close to sixty thousand ancestors.

When going back further to the early thirteenth century, that same child would find eighty percent of the population of England, at that time, would be on their family tree.

Can We Really All Be Related?

These claims suggest anyone living in England currently would most likely be related, if they traced back their lineage through English history.

“Could it be that we all stem from one race? “

Can you now imagine what going back some two thousand years would produce? Or even 6000 years? Could it be that we all stem from one race? Or, at the very least, are we all intrinsically related in some way or another?

Perhaps we are all one big global family.

Dreaming of Unity Consciousness

This is my belief anyway and it is my dream that one day we will all be able to live in symbiance with each other and along with all different beliefs and faiths. We will come to a point where we do not judge or dissuade anyone from their place of truth — especially what they choose to believe in.

Messiah Messages of Love

I do not subscribe to any religion — I believe in God or a Divine Source. However, I do have a great respect for all the various belief systems as I have come to realise the
underlying current is usually one of love.

“…we are painting a picture of an all-encompassing metaphorical concept of the sacred messengers (messiah) of God’s Word.”

I feel every Messiah that has graced this Earth can be clearly seen in these words as they all came in with messages of love, and they should all be acknowledged in the same light.

Whether we are addressing Abraham, Muhammad, Krishna, Gautama Buddha or Jesus Christ, we are painting a picture of an all-encompassing metaphorical concept of the sacred messengers (messiah) of God’s Word.

We all come in different packages so why can’t messiahs too? They may come in the package of being Jewish, or Indian or Arabic, etc — and why not?

Perspectives and Holding Your Tongue

It is an obvious deduction that we may need different cultural perspectives to gain one simple idea. So which one is right and true? Is it so hard to conceive that many masters bring one message?

“You can love unconditionally without having to be the sole provider or keeper of the Truth.”

Let us try to tune in to all these delicious deities as a whole on our quest to unravel these messages of unconditional love and while we are on this journey of life, let’s not forget that we are all connected to each other and your life does not require for your neighbour to hold the same beliefs as you. You can love unconditionally without having to be the sole provider or keeper of the Truth.

There are 7 billion versions and perspectives of the truth out there and your view is but one.

If you just focused on your own integrity, you would see that there is no need to focus on another’s. That is for them to address, not you. Leave judgement at the door and focus on yourself and your own growth — leave your fellow brothers and sisters to unravel their own life’s unique tapestry.

What it All Boils Down To Is…

Respect and love others, respect and love yourself. Respect and love all life forms and you will have stepped into enlightenment.

To avoid the cheesy violin strings and perhaps the urge to start singing a Roxette song, I’m going to get straight to the point of this blog.

Your heart centre tells you where you are heading. Your gut instinct is a great thing to follow and that usually tells us when we have strayed off course. You know, the butterflies in the stomach or sinking feeling felt in the solar plexus (stomach area).

When you can shift the feeling of surety up into your heart centre and feel an overwhelming confidence for what you are doing, then you are working from your heart and you can trust the process.

If you feel a strain in this area when you move your feelings up into your heart centre, then you need to reflect on your decision, something is still amiss.

The Importance of Feeling

Why is it important to feel things? Our emotions are our internal guidance system, much like a GPS trying to steer us onto the right course, if only we pay attention.

“…we reconnect with our soul and can realign ourselves to our purpose.”

If you are working with a GPS in your car and you keep ignoring the signals then you will be in a state of chaotic driving, going nowhere at every turn. Feeling lost and disconnected whilst at any point in time, you could have just listened to that voice on the GPS to get you back on track.

This is why meditation is so useful, we reconnect with our soul and can realign ourselves to our purpose.

Are You Lost?

It seems like a no-brainer but we often decide to just ignore our gut instincts or turn off the voice of reason in the head. That is when we wander from our path and get lost in the forest of uncertainty.

Do You Know You Have a Compass in Your Pocket?

So take time out to meditate, realign and trust the heart. You have an internal barometer — use it. Trust yourself more. You do know everything, it is all there at your core and when you tap into that, you are tapping into the knowledge of the Universe or what is sometimes referred to as the Divine Matrix.

Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus? This may seem to be the case when we are living in linearity with an illusory divide that is the separation between the two genders of humanity. But let’s look at why this statement is lacking a quantum perspective.

The Healing of the Female/Male Painbody

I feel like I was born into this world with a female painbody (for those of you who are not familiar with the word ‘painbody’ — a word coined by Eckhart Tolle — I am referring to the collective emotion/pain of being a woman).

” …the divide between men and women and the issue of inequality is monumentally better than just even one generation ago…”

The frustration of feeling equal in all but strength to a man can be overwhelming when faced with situations of unequal pay, if you are female, not being taken seriously with your political or even general views, etc.

I have to say that we are living in a day and age where the divide between men and women and the issue of inequality is monumentally better than just even one generation ago, let alone 300 years ago. But there is still work to be done. And in fact, it is such a simple thing that we need to do — to address inequality — that I have all confidence and hope that this generation will be the ones to effect change.

Reconciling the History of Pain

The collective ‘painbody’ of the female goes way back.

“…the basic stripping down of the divine feminine and subjugating her to a life of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. “

As you can imagine, we are talking about biblical times where women were practically written out of the bible or if they did make an appearance they were usually whores or harlots; the witch burning crusades of the Spanish Inquisition; the basic stripping down of the divine feminine and subjugating her to a life of being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

During my lifetime, I have pondered these many harsh historical tales and it has made me feel quite angry about being a woman.

I Want to be a Man

For most of my life I always wanted to be a man, this would have seemed to solve a lot of my frustrations. Until I had my recent epiphany that has made me see this from a completely new perspective.

And hooray for this new revelation because now I can say with confidence ‘I LOVE BEING A WOMAN!’.

Blood, Sweat and Tears…Literally

I woke up last week and had started my period. I ambled downstairs and sat on the couch while I had my first cup of the morning and tried to wake up.

“A mixture of feelings had overcome me and I wasn’t too sure about the outburst.”

After just sitting there for about an hour I burst into tears. A mixture of feelings had overcome me and I wasn’t too sure about the outburst. So I thought to myself it’s just PMS and I am in pain so ergo the tears.

This made me feel even more frustrated and the crying didn’t stop. My dear husband came and sat with me during the outburst and offered consolation. I then asked him if he minded me ‘spilling my guts’ to him in an attempt to purge myself of what I was feeling. He agreed and the deluge began.

Frustration and Compassion

It started with me telling him my frustrations over how my period made me feel – sore, dirty, uncomfortable and, worst of all, judged.

I let it out that I was frustrated about how most women are judged or perceived as being a little ‘mental’ when they are menstruating. I verbalized the injustice in this as your body does go crazy and it is mostly out of your control.

“When you don’t understand something, don’t judge it – just let it be and show compassion.”

Perhaps, some men just don’t get the fact that your body is being stormed with hormones and you don’t know your arse from your elbow. The key to this is empathy – compassion. When you don’t understand something, don’t judge it – just let it be and show compassion. That’s all, it’s very simple. Support and compassion.

No Stopping Me Now

The tears, however, did not abate.

I had just read a chapter in a book the night before that stated that women who have sex out of a ‘sins of the flesh’ or in lustful way have pain during childbirth.

Now I have heard of orgasmic childbirths and I have no quarrel with this statement as, perhaps, children who are conceived through the purest of intentions and love may very well be born differently – turning pain into ecstasy.

But my female painbody sprung into action!

What about all the men who have lustful ‘sins of the flesh’ type sex?

What is the pain that they are to bear?

A man is even guaranteed an orgasm if conception has taken place, where the woman is not guaranteed anything – how unfair!

Why must a woman take on the misgivings of these combined activities?

Utter frustration was gripping me as I tackled this concept. I was back in the throngs of the painbody.

Collapse and then Rebuild

Whilst my husband took a break from the festivities of the couch, I sat sobbing into my tissue.

As I was in this moment I felt arms around me. Whether they were the arms of my guides, angels or higher self, they were so comforting.

Then I heard a whisper in my ear:

“Now what if you were a man in your previous life and all these men who ‘don’t get women’ were actually women themselves in past life experiences – you have incarnated here on this earth plane and you have forgotten all past life experiences”.

Now I do know this concept that we have had numerous past lives and the likelihood of having experienced various different lives in various different genders makes sense.

No More Duality, Thank You!

Then the penny dropped (and along with it a lot of frustration): All men in this current lifetime have been women, have given birth, have probably been raped or abused, have been put down, have suffered extremities and loss.

“We are all one and the same! Duh.”

All women in this current lifetime have been soldiers and/or warriors, have done hard labour, have perhaps been abusers, have suffered bloodshed and loss just like anyone. We are all one and the same! Duh.

Most have just forgotten.

The voice then whispered again in my ear, “Now say the opposite”. I wondered what the voice meant and then I realized that I had been repeatedly sobbing into my tissue ‘I hate being a woman!’…I tried it, ‘I love being a woman!’ I felt a great sense of relief and sincerity when I voiced this.

So, in figuring that one out I sat there – in silence. So what is the solution. This makes me feel a bit better but it still doesn’t solve everything.

Speaking Trinity with an Angel

Then I remembered something that Archangel Metatron had told me in one of my dowsing sessions. He said that we need to redefine the trinity as love, healing coupled with compassion and this will lead us to mastery.

The Conclusion and New Beginnings

My conclusion is that through the love of each other, crossing every divide – be it gender or race, religion or political view – we will allow ourselves to empathize with each other and to have compassion.

“We are the yin and the yang. There is no separation – this is an illusion.”

When we can walk alongside each other and lift each other up and offer support when and where it is needed, we will be masters.

When gender is no longer an issue and the problems that either gender is facing in the NOW is met with compassion and understanding, we will be equal. Because we know, deep down inside what it feels like to be both man or woman.

When you buy into the illusion of separation, this leads to fear, misery and frustration. See past the illusion of gender and you are just the I AM.

When you are feeling stuck in your solar plexus (stomach area) you can always choose to move it up a notch into your heart chakra (chest area).

“…you can move it up on the emotional scale.”

When you are feeling down or depressed or even stressed, angry or frustrated (any ‘negative’ emotion) you can move it up on the emotional scale.

Butterflies and Pits

When we feel those butterflies in the tummy or a pit in the stomach, we are experiencing the negative scale of the solar plexus. I’m sure you can relate to this feeling.

Expansion and Bliss

When you move it up one, you are moving the energy or frequency/vibration into the heart center. To experience the feeling of love, joy or bliss we must put ourselves into this frame of emotion.

How?

Observe how you feel when you think of something wonderful.

It could be:

Holding your child for the first time,

Getting your first puppy,

Watching a magnificent sunset,

Lying in a warm, snug bed,

Getting a promotion or bonus,

Eating Italian ice-cream…

…whatever coaxes that warm, fuzzy feeling in you. This is the trigger you need to get you to feel ‘bliss’ and this is usually felt in your heart chakra.

” It is empowering to know that whenever you are feeling out of alignment with your true state, which should be bliss, joy and/or love, you can use a memory to help guide you back into your center.”

When you find the one thing that can immediately make you feel all cozy and gooey inside, you have your trigger to activate the heart centre/chakra.

This is extremely important as it is a tool to help you to elevate yourself and your well-being. It is empowering to know that whenever you are feeling out of alignment with your true state, which should be bliss, joy and/or love, you can use a memory to help guide you back into your center.

Practical Steps to Feeling Good

Practice this whenever you can. Just sit quietly, close you eyes and think of that one thing that brings you joy, feel it, observe it, expand it until your whole chest is tingling and opening.

Can you feel that the more you expand this feeling, the more it permeates through your entire body — every cell seems to ‘vibrate’.

Now you can use this to steer your life in the direction you want to see it sail into…have fun!

Just remember, if you fall overboard, you can throw yourself a life belt by either moving it up a notch or reminding yourself that ‘this too shall pass‘. Then when you are feeling a little better, you can start your heart chakra meditation and start redirecting your cosmic vibration to match your desires again.

Let me know how this works for you. If you already are in touch with your chakras and how to align yourself, let me know what works best for you. Let us share our knowledge and experience and please feel free to ask questions.

Most of us have the biggest problem of all when it comes to loving ourselves.

Try this as an exercise:

Every time you see yourself in the mirror, give yourself a wink and say (you don’t have to say it out loud if you don’t want to) ‘I love you’. I know, the first time I tried this I laughed, it is hard to take yourself seriously but try it over and over again and see the change in how you perceive yourself. I noticed that instead of picking out my flaws in the mirror, I started to see and admire the positive attributes of my body.

“…see past your perceived imperfections and look at the magnificent being you are.”

This is not an intention to be Narcissistic but an attempt to acknowledge yourself and the deep connection you have with your body and consciousness. So, look at yourself in that mirror and fall in love with yourself, see past your perceived imperfections and look at the magnificent being you are.

The love for self is the glue that will bind you together and the strength of the adhesive you use will determine your longevity and health whilst you are in form.

“You need to accept compliments as if they were a gift…”

Try to also receive compliments gracefully.

Can You Receive a Compliment?

A lot of us feel uncomfortable with compliments and either resist the gifting of a compliment or deny it completely.

When you do this you are inadvertently telling yourself that you are not worthy. You need to accept compliments as if they were a gift, you need not take them personally (as in identify with them which is your ego at play) but just acknowledge them without rebuttal.

I was so delighted to open up my mail the other day to find this message:

“Dear Cherie, I have been following your blog for several months and find your posts always filled with meaning. They always make me think beyond my usual thoughts and bring me new and inspiring ideas. Your blog is created with love and honesty, and is extremely well-written! For this reason, I am nominating you for the Versatile Blogger Award!”

Thank you so much to the blogger of lOveOutlOud for the nomination. Here is a beautiful quote from the Love Out Loud blog ‘About Me’ section that, I think, encapsulates the wonderful message that is being put across through this inspiring site:

“…Love is the most important thing on earth, yet we rarely mention it, we often forget to show it and a lot of us never listen to it. Some don’t even believe in it at all! Love makes the world go round; it’s an invisible force that brings us our best moments in life.”

It is a blog full of heart and soul, a positively inspiring and uplifting read! Don’t forget to check it out HERE.

After accepting the Versatile Blogger Award, the winner must:

1) Thank the person who gave the award and link back to them in your post.2) Share 7 things about yourself.3) Pass this award along to 15 blogs.

Right, now to divulge these 7 tasty things about me…here it goes:

1. I love to hula hoop (yes, the ‘inner child’ will out!).

2. Back in the late 90’s early 00’s I was the bass guitarist in a band called ‘The Bends’. I guess it will go without saying, that one of my favourite bands is Radiohead (our band was named after their second album).

I am continuing my blog from Tuesday, where we are taking a look at unconditional love. To recap please click here.

Divine Love

Now the Divine Source (or ‘God’) that I best understand never judges. You want to know why ‘He’ doesn’t get involved in human affairs?

“Of course there will be no smiting, there is no judgment.”

Well, the analogy that the Divine is the all seeing father/mother figure brings into focus that when we do something ‘bad’ the Divine will strike us down but this never happens. Some of you think ‘He’ just doesn’t care but I think it’s because the Divine is free of judgment.

The statement that ‘God is Love’ reiterates this. Of course there will be no smiting, there is no judgment. Do not conceptualize the Divine as if He/She was human. It is only us that think like this.

The Human Parent vs God Analogy

As the entity referred to as God has been interpreted as our all loving, encompassing parent, we too are intrinsically a good analogy for this as we all have that basic instinct for love of our own children or relations, even if they are not blood relations, we all have somebody whom we love and cherish and this is the one (or many, hopefully) that we will use this analogy upon.

“You can do nothing wrong in the eyes of the Infinite Oneness.”

I can only speak from an observation standpoint as I, myself, am not a parent. But the love a parent has for their child is irrefutable. Your child can do nothing to stop the unconditional love that you have for him or her.

“So the laughable image of hell is a complete and utter scare tactic. “

This is the basic framework of this analogy we will be using because this principal works the same way for the Divine Source.

You can do nothing wrong in the eyes of the Infinite Oneness. Your behaviors may not be acceptable in certain situations but you, as an entity, a child of the Divine, will never be discarded. So the laughable image of hell is a complete and utter scare tactic.

Hell — The Biggest Lie Ever Told

If your child did something really bad would you want to see them burn in an eternal pit of fire? Would you physically take your child and want to see them scream and burn for eternity?

I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘no’.

“Do you think the Divine so low as to not have compassion for one of His/Her own?”

So why is it that some people expect God to do this? What an insult to this all-knowing, all-encompassing Father/Mother figure. Do you think the Divine so low as to not have compassion for one of His/Her own? This is one of the most devastating myths we have ever been told and it was invented to literally make us fear something which certainly has not got anything to do with fear.

The Divine Source/God/Infinite Oneness is all about love.

Don’t Suppress Your Divinity through Fear

The vision of hell keeps us trapped in fear and entices us to buy into the various doctrines or religions that claim to prevent this damnation from occurring. It is a way of suppressing your true divinity by making you fear a made up scenario.

This is a game of entrapment through a web of fear.

Set The Truth Free

The truth is that we will never be judged or damned, we are all holding a shard of the Divine within us.

“Not all religions or doctrines are necessarily bad, they have many great truths in them, although sometimes misconstrued along the way…”

This truth will not allow for such lies to hold any more credence and as we all start to claim our own divinity we will see these old institutions crumble and/or, for the institutions that are willing to bend to incorporate this truth, we will see a restructuring in various doctrines to allow for this ‘new’ human attribute.

The Evolution of Mankind

Not all religions or doctrines are necessarily bad, they have many great truths in them, although sometimes misconstrued along the way, but all that needs to be done is to redefine some texts and have them be more flexible to allow for a changing world and evolution of attitude.

There is no better analogy than that of the human ‘family’ that we treasure so and put so much emphasis on. We do this because it is real, unconditional love and it is the closest we are going to get to understand the complexities of unconditional love for ourselves.

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Now let’s cast aside all cheesy connotations of the word and let’s have a closer look at it…LOVE.

L O V E.

Yes, but what does it mean?

Now I like to play with words and I think it is fascinating that word like disease broken down are ‘dis-ease’ and ‘remember’ is to ‘re-member’ (become a part of the whole again), so love backwards begins to spell…evol – ve? Maybe…evol – ution…could be. Just a thought…

Aren’t we all progressively trying to evolve in one way or another? Could love be the catalyst for evolution?

To Love Unconditionally

Love is more than a word or chemical reaction in the brain telling us how we feel. Love is the Universal language of emotion. It can even be called the ultimate emotion. Or going out on a limb, the only true emotion – the one that leads back to Source.

There are of course ‘different’ types of love. The love a mother has for a child, the romantic kind of love, brotherly/sisterly love, love for thy neighbor, and the list goes on. You get the picture. But what does it really mean?

Love is unconditional. Another word that most people roll their eyes at…what is unconditional? We say we love unconditionally but in reality our love always comes with conditions attached. Think about it.

Do you love your partner unconditionally? No, I hear you say. Okay, why? Well, because there is the fear of them leaving or, even worse, leaving me for someone else. Fear, another wonderful concept that I delve into in my new book ‘Divine You’ (now available at all good bookstores!).

Understanding Love

To love unconditionally is best likened to the parental type of love. Even though it goes to say that even some parents love with attachments — this is most typically found in Western and even in Eastern cultures where parents tend to live through their children and do not let the children experience their own desires. But typically a parent loves their child (ren) unconditionally.

” A parent will love their child even if that child does something unspeakable…”

This is the closest we are going to get in this 3D realm to what unconditional love really looks like. A parent will love their child even if that child does something unspeakable. Even if your child were to commit a serious crime. You wouldn’t just stop loving your child if they were to murder someone.

You might be devastated but you will still love them.

Turning off Judgment to Experience Love

Love is something you can’t switch off. But judgment is. Judgment can be switched off, it just takes time and practice. I say this because our need to judge continuously clouds our need to love unconditionally.

“We judge in others what we don’t like about ourselves.”

Isn’t that what this is really about? We blind ourselves through judgment of others. Why? Because everyone is mirrored back to us. We judge in others what we don’t like about ourselves.

I will continue more on this topic in Thursdays blog (please click the ‘follow’ button in the sidebar if you wish to be instantly updated when blogs are released). This has been an extract from my latest book ‘Divine You — Redefining Love in the New Earth’ which is now available.

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I would like to share with you the outro of my book (‘Divine You’). It is a poem I wrote just before I started the endeavour that was the undertaking of writing this self-empowerment guide. It encapsulates the journey of this book and I hope it will whet your appetite.

So for now, I’ll leave you with this…

Your World, Your Life…

Your world begins and ends with you
You are in control, the master of your destiny

You are the constant observer of your world
You are the choice maker
Your choices create your world

You will know the crossroads when you see them
Think hard about who you are and what you want
Your decisions are never wrong unless you don’t learn from them
And are grateful when they are the right decisions

We make mistakes so we can learn
We have to make mistakes so we know what we want from life
It is never too late to alter your destiny or to right a wrong

Forgiveness is vital along your path
To forgive helps you to extinguish anger
It is not designed to indemnify the perpetrator
It is there to help you move on

To forgive yourself is a difficult task
It is also a most vital task

You were made perfect
You doubt yourself through the eyes and opinions of others
Be mindful of what you say to others and what is said to you

You know you are Divine, you know you are perfect
Compliments or criticisms from others should be taken lightly
Only you know your soul
Only you can evaluate yourself

If you let criticism into your heart you are agreeing with it
You will pick up a lot of this kind of ‘baggage’ along the way
Just remember it is easy to break the agreement if you do not concur

Only you know who you are
Only you can make the agreement

Never assume anything, assumptions only cause confusion
Make sure you know the facts

The world is your oyster, you are never to young or too old
Your dreams will become reality if you believe it
Thoughts are the second most powerful force in the Universe
Love is the first

Love yourself and you will have endless love for others
Hold love in your heart and the world will open up for you
See everyone in the world as a part of you, a collective Oneness
Treat them like you would treat yourself

This book encourages the reader to re-examine some fundamental qualities to living a happy and content life. It looks at the importance of forgiveness, why it is imperative not to judge, how to use the Law of Attraction, present moment awareness, what unconditional love really looks like, how to vanquish fear, awakening the unity that is the christ-consciousness seed within you and lots more.

When you put a stopper in the illusion that is fear, you allow the love to pour through. We are prime examples of how we love unconditionally when it comes to our children/family/friends and how, especially in the case of our children, we would never want anything to happen to them.

“God is the ultimate parent and we have put our limited and linear way of rationalizing upon this Force.”

Now, how could we even entertain the notion that God would send any one of us, God’s children, to hell?

Can you see how silly this is and how thin this illusion truly reveals itself to be?

Can you contemplate the idea of your child being in an eternity of pain and anguish? Now, can you imagine putting them there!?! God is the ultimate parent and we have put our limited and linear way of rationalizing upon this Force.

I feel this is a great insult and we should look towards remedying this repulsive idea as quickly as possible.

Man-Made Limitations

The condition that is the fear of God is man-made. It was never the will of God. It would go against all logic to assume so. So please, instead of thinking with your heads, feel with your heart and ask for the truth to be felt there.

Your child can do nothing to stop the unconditional love that you have for him/her. This is the framework of the analogy of God as the ultimate parent as this principle of unconditional love for a child works the same way for the Creator.

Your behaviours may not be acceptable in certain situations but you, as an entity – a child of God, will never be discarded, as in ‘sent to hell’. Be very careful though, because YOUR powerful intent and will may put you there…in other words, you may create your own version of hell.

Unconditional Love

Let’s take an example:

Your child does something wrong, something really bad – we’ll leave it to your imagination as to what wrong is in this instance – would you want to see them eternally punished for this deed or do you have space in your heart for reprieve?

Would you want to see your child repent and be given a chance to elevate themselves from that particular incident where they slipped into a lower vibration of thought and acted upon it? Yes?

So, why some people expect God not to have the capacity to forgive (as they would) is a complete mystery!

Hell is a Grim Fairytale

The vision of hell keeps us trapped in fear not to serve Gods will but mans will and want for power. Power is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand it is a beautiful gift when used from the heart but on the other extreme, if used with the head or ego, it is a destructive force.

“…there is a darker side which seeks to control and overpower with teachings of separation and fear.”

The game of power being played at the moment derives its power from fear – fear of hell is just one example of entrapment in this web of illusion.

The truth is that we are not damned, we are a part of God – a shard of the Divine. Not all religions are necessarily bad, many do indeed touch on the truth in their metaphors of unconditional love but, as with everything, there is a darker side which seeks to control and overpower with teachings of separation and fear.

You can still belong to a certain religious denomination and feel the connection to God and all that Is but try to steer yourself clear of any vibration or teaching that induces fear – especially fear of God.

Spreading the Light

It is everybody’s free will and choice to believe in whatever they will. All I am saying is that when you do subscribe to something, you do it out of love and not out of fear.

Nothing is black and white, there is so much gray area in life. We are so used to labeling everything in this world and we seldom have the time or inclination to look past the labels.

The Every Day Miracles we Seldom ‘See’

Try to take the time to see the world as it is – a pure miracle of creation.

“…a given reality cannot be set as different perspectives mean a variation of what is being perceived as reality.”

A tree is much more than it’s label as is a flower as are you. When we start seeing the world with a fresh approach we can start to see past the trappings of labels and we will start to rediscover and reform our ideas or concepts of certain things, situations or people.

It is vital to see things from a different perspective or angle as there are many perspectives to a given reality, so therefore a given reality cannot be set as different perspectives mean a variation of what is being perceived as reality.

What this means is, if we all have a different take on something, that thing cannot be labeled as our different views will give it different attributes or meaning.

Alice Adventuring in Wonderland

This always reminds me of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole and finding herself in a completely different version of reality. A world where the characters seem bizarre, if not completely mad, and the world they live in seems utterly discordant to her.

“When we unravel the illusion that is fear, we will be cast into great doubt and will go through a process of rediscovery…”

She can’t see past her own labels and finds herself in an enormous pickle until she gains a broader perspective of what is really happening. When she starts to quieten the constant voice in her mind (her ego) telling her what to think and what to ‘logically’ do (we see a brilliant example in Alice of how ones mind/ego can control ones reality through being over critical of everything and extremely judgmental), she starts to unravel the metaphor of this seemingly parallel reality.

When she ‘awakens’ in her version of reality she gleans a certain knowledge from her undertakings in Wonderland that she can successfully use in her life to make ‘sense’ of her experience.

When we unravel the illusion that is fear, we will be cast into great doubt and will go through a process of rediscovery, just like Alice, this will take us on a journey to the truth.

This truth is found within — as is God.

To Truly Love God You’ve Got To Love Each Other

Here is where I will wrap this up by saying that God as the parent is likened to the human parent in as much as we are more willing to think out of the box with our own children or loved ones.

In other words, we are far less judgmental in the case of the people we know and love as opposed to ‘the others'(the illusion of separation). This is simply because we feel we know them.

“…God sees all of us in the same light”

So we are not judging them rather we are judging the action with a knowing that we all make mistakes and that our mistakes do not always represent the being behind the mistake.

This is why we always seek to blame another or the situation for our loved ones actions because we think we know them so well. But if everyone thinks this of their loved ones/children, you can now see how God sees all of us in the same light.

There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ we are all one big family When we take this approach and apply it to all our human family we learn what it is to be compassionate and to see things from a different perspective or just from another persons point of view. When we do this we will move closer to our natural state of divinity.

We are now firmly rooted in the dawning of a new age and new consciousness on Earth. However, there is one major topic we need to address – fear.

In the absence of love we are left with fear.

When we no longer trust our instincts we give in to fear. You can see fear as an illusion and only becomes a perceived reality when you let it become manifest.

Illusion versus Perceived Reality

To illustrate this point, lets take the illusory nature of assumption (for more about assumption, CLICK HERE).

When you assume something you do not possess all the facts or truth of the matter at hand. When you form an idea of what is happening you are assuming (which is an illusory concept).

Then when your assumption has rooted itself in your psyche as the truth, you give it form and this can lead either to the creation of your assumption or the suffering of your ego based on the assumption. And all this was made possible through an illusion.

“When you worry about something you are future-projecting a negative outcome. “

Fear works in much the same way. Worry is a form of fear that most of us are altogether too familiar with. When you worry about something you are future-projecting a negative outcome.

Sometimes the situations we worry about never come to pass. Worry is an illusion.

When we talk about the NOW or present moment awareness, we are referring to the point of acceptance that one arrives at when there is an absence of fear. There are many roads that take you to fear such as worry, anxiety, stress, panic, anger, resentment, revenge, etc but they all are rooted in fear.

So, succinctly, fear is the root on the scale of negativity. The opposite of fear would be love.

Good Ol’ Gushy Love

The emotions that lead you to love are joy, happiness, elation, bliss, mirth, laughter, etc and these are all rooted in love. The ultimate root on the scale of positivity. The light and dark aspects of existence.

Without either of these perspectives we would live a very dull life. We need a basis of comparison, in other words, how would you know not to put your hand in the fire if you had never been burnt.

How would you know just how perfect your body felt if you hadn’t had that painful Thai massage?

“If you choose to let fear take a back seat you will see the world open up to you in ways you never imagined.”

We need comparisons to ascertain what we do want.

Fear is generally not wanted but it certainly gains momentum. It is a tricky little blighter. The thing is, and always is, are you aware? When you can become aware of your fears you can deal with them. If you are playing the victim role, then perhaps you are quite content to be in a cocoon of misery – the choice will always remain yours.

Do you want this? Is there a better way? There is always choice and we are always co-creating our lives. If you choose to let fear take a back seat you will see the world open up to you in ways you never imagined.

When you can master how you spend your energy and who you spend it on, you will not be sucked into the various dramas that people create. When you no longer fear living, you will begin to truly live in a way that embraces every moment and does not fear death.

The Dirty ‘D’ word — Death

Death is probably the biggest fear of all. Death is a gateway to another experience. Experience is the key to existence.

So instead of thinking of death as a finality, think of it as the ultimate experience and see how you can drop the illusion of fear that is crusted around death.

As I once said to an atheist science teacher, what have you got to lose? If there is nothing after death, then you would never know and would just be snuffed out, with no after thoughts. No problem there.

“True freedom can only be found on the path that leads to the root of love — the knowing that all is well and the trusting that the universe is organized and you are a part of that.”

However, if there was an ecstatic afterlife with a soul group orientation, my God – what a bonus! Now I say that very tongue-in-cheek but in all seriousness – we are energy, ask any scientist. Energy cannot be destroyed, only transmuted. F

ear around death is truly scary as it acts like a net that traps you.

Have you ever noticed how some people transcend this life with a smile on their face and how some leave truly terrified? Which one do you want to be?

Be Free

True freedom can only be found on the path that leads to the root of love — the knowing that all is well and the trusting that the universe is organized and you are a part of that.

“We all need to have our eyes wide open to what we are manifesting and creating on a day-to-day, if not minute-to-minute, basis. “

Look out into the universe. Can you see how there is structure in everything out there? There is the cycle of life, death and even a bit of chaos thrown in-between but there always seems to be an order and organization to the universe itself.

Planets aren’t shaped like bananas or cubes, they are round (or at least they were when I wrote this). Most of them are in orbit around a sun.

There are, of course, some free-for-alls that do not have a sun to orbit and drift through space but what a wonderful metaphor for how some of us feel! You know, the macrocosm reflecting the microcosm and vice versa.

Bashing Fear on the Nose

Fear is something that we all deal with daily. No matter what label you put on the emotion – if it is negative or coming from a lower vibration, it boils down to fear. We now need to march straight up to it and bash it on the nose.

“Everything you experience is a manifestation of your thought.”

There is no more time for unconscious creating in this world (for more about consciously co-creating your life, CLICK HERE). We all need to have our eyes wide open to what we are manifesting and creating on a day-to-day, if not minute-to-minute, basis.

Everything you experience is a manifestation of your thought. Everything from the bird in the tree that is singing to the cup of coffee that sits next to you.

Most people just think about manifestations as being on the bigger scale. ‘Oh, I know I manifested that really needy relationship’ or ‘Yes, I acknowledge that I my anger could have caused the accident’ but do we really consider even the smallest of creations. If not, you should – because there is no chance in our world – everything is co-created and manifested through collective or individual consciousness.

Hard pill to swallow? Good! Nothing worth knowing comes to you on a silver platter.

As tongue-in-cheek as this article title intended to be — there is something to this biblical concept of ‘ascension’ but it may not be what you think.

To Be or Not To Be…What Was the Question?

Who am I?

If this has been your question, then I would like to officially welcome you to the human race.

What needs to be clarified is that you know who you are. You are the I Am that I Am. This is not just some new flavour caption or the latest (or possibly, oldest) spiritual declaration of the times. This is a statement that holds no ego, no space and no time. This is your true identity. When you question your identity, you believe that you are less than what you are. You are never this — you are only stuck in the illusion or the dream that you are lacking in some way or another.

Your Personal Spiritual Path

Now to find true meaning behind the saying is your spiritual path — your journey to enlightenment. To say the words with no meaning or context is useless and is as effective as saying any prayer like a parrot and not feeling the words being said.

“You do not need to ‘find’ yourself because you were and are never lost.”

We so often miss this vital point. Your ‘homework’ is to give juice to this phrase. You do not need to ‘find’ yourself because you were and are never lost. You need to rediscover who you are because you have forgotten – that’s all. How you get to this point is entirely up to you. Every soul takes a unique path to their spiritual awakening and this can be fun and daunting at the same time. Now, this brings me to ascension – the latest hot topic.

Will some be beamed off the face of the Earth (possibly like the Mayan civilization – disappeared never to be seen again) or will we all die and move on to the wondrous 5th dimension that has been promised by so many prophets and soothsayers? Will the religiously righteous be taken up to heaven while the rest are left to fight out the apocalypse? Is this all just one big hoax or money-making scheme?

They do seem like rather strange questions, don’t they? But believe it or not, they are being asked. We are looking outside ourselves for answers and we want them fast.

Some were even led to believe that the 21st December 2012 was going to be ‘the date’.

Now here’s how I understand this cosmic rapturing conundrum.

Could Love Be Key to the Ascension?

Ascension is a state of elevating yourself into a different level of consciousness and, in my humble opinion, is not a physical event. This is a lateral and not a literal experience.

What has love got to do with it? Let’s examine this more closely.

Firstly, fear is the catalyst for being in an eternal drama. I say eternal because if you don’t break the pattern of fear it will lead to the inevitable cycle of karma – cause and effect. You will be doing it again if you don’t learn this time around.

“You incarnated with the intention to overcome the illusion and fear is the root cause of all illusion.”

This is not some form of punishment – this will come from the will of your over soul – your higher self. You incarnated with the intention to overcome the illusion and fear is the root cause of all illusion. Love is the reality and love will cancel out all fear.

So your job is to examine fear – not to push it aside like most of us are guilty of doing but to take it out and look at it. We need to face the fear and walk through it. You can take this literally or metaphorically, the choice is yours and will fit the situation.

Trust Your Gut Instinct

Your discernment is the key factor in outing your darkness. Only you know what cobwebs are lurking in the deep caverns of your soul. Only you can dust those corners and expose them to the light.

If some fears need facing head on, then do it! If some need therapy, then do it! If some need deep reflection and meditation, then do it! No more excuses. If you are making excuses, for whatever reasons you have, be very sure that you are fully aware that your excuses ARE your choices.

“No-one else is responsible for you.”

If you choose to excuse yourself from your lessons then you will be in for another round on the karma wheel – your choice. Some people take longer to pull finger than others – this applies to lifetimes too, you know. So it is appropriate that some will not achieve full enlightenment in this lifetime, there will be other lifetimes to battle this out – your choice. If you are a go-getter, then why not make it this lifetime?

As Yoda said, ‘Do or do not – there is no try’. But the bottom line to this bollocking is that you must be responsible for your choices. No-one else is responsible for you. If this is your mindset you are in for a rude awakening! No pun intended.

I Am that I Am

Now let’s get back to ascension. Ascension, for me, is embodying your experience here on earth by:

knowing at a deep soul level your ‘I Am’ presence (being resolute about who you are),

accepting what is and always knowing when to take appropriate loving action when there is something you can change,

understanding that unconditional love holds the answer to all problems,

finding the compassion in any situation and forgiving freely,

giving freely with no attachment,

seeing divinity en-masse, with no exceptions,

knowing, at all times, that there is divine order,

knowing you are a part of the entire system called ‘life’ therefore stepping into unity consciousness,

honouring all life — in whatever shape or form, including self,

being comfortably in the world but not of it.

We need to face everything with resolution that all is in divine order. Whatever is just is. There is a peace that comes with this acceptance. If you are fighting this phrase you still need to accept that there is divine order and that you are divine.

If you do feel this then when you are faced with a fear based situation, be the calm presence.

“There simply is no ‘ceasing to exist’ – even if you do leave your body behind.”

Even if this situation means death – all you have to do is state I AM THAT I AM. If you die in fear you will generate a lesson that you will have to walk through again…yup, the good ‘ol wheel of karma.

If you die stating and knowing in your heart that you ARE the divine, you have accepted mastery. You are in dharma or nirvana. There simply is no ‘ceasing to exist’ — even if you do leave your body behind. If you ascend with or without your body —state the I AM THAT I AM.

Your only job is to make sure you know what you are stating and that it is felt in your heart.

The Heart Chakra

When you are faced with fear, try to concentrate your energy on your heart center. Feel your heart swell with love and gratitude for whatever brings you these feelings in your life – whether it be your children, grandchildren, pets, friends, anything that brings you joy and feelings of elation — this is how you will elevate yourself into a different frequency. Now expand that feeling.

Practice this over and over again until you can switch on the sensation of immense love whenever you have to. When you send out love and light to the world or to anyone or anything, make sure you are feeling the love in your heart centre (chakra). This makes it more potent and it will bring more of that feeling back to you – so it’s a win-win situation.

When you love, there simply is no space left for fear. You will be on a different vibratory plane. Fear won’t ‘fit’ anymore.

Truth Be Told

I read a channeled message saying that we need to speak our truths. If you don’t speak your truth for fear of what people may think of you, you are not ready. That resonated with me and I am now fully motivated to stand up and say it like it is and if people think I’m a nutter, well, why the hell not!

I am proud to stand up at AA (abnormal anonymous – although not quite so anonymous anymore) and say, ‘Hi, my name is Cherie and I am completely abnormal. But hey, I Am that I Am.’

The ascension is the awakening to your divine self, the knowledge that you are a part of God and the acceptance that everything has divine order and purpose. In order to do this, you must also see this divinity en-masse — in everyone and everything. How can peace and love not arise with this attitude?

Today’s blog is going to be a simple one – a prayer for love and peace where you will anchor the new energy. If prayer sounds too ‘religious’ then use it as a meditation or an affirmation.

This can be done as you read it from your computer screen or it can be said during your ‘quiet time’.

If spoken out loud it is more potent as your words carry a frequency and/or energy. Please say it with feeling – without feeling the words will be meaningless.

“…it is a great thing to do whenever you are feeling low and want to raise your vibration”

The easiest way to truly feel the love is to go to your heart chakra (middle of your chest) and imagine yourself swelling with love in this space. Think of someone or something that makes your feel joyous, blissful, loving or any one of the positive spectrum of emotions. Work from there and expand that feeling so that you are in a state of love or bliss.

Don’t worry if you can’t do it at first, this exercise takes practice and repetition but it is a great thing to do whenever you are feeling low and want to raise your vibration.

Here is the prayer/affirmation:

“I hold the vision of love and peace here on Mother Earth (HOME)

I see Her folded, safely, within the wings of a White Dove

I clearly picture a blanket of love and peace wrapped around the Earth and Her inhabitants

I feel the love sweep over me and know that it is felt simultaneously everywhere by everyone and everything

I sense the smiling faces receiving this love and I tingle with the presence of peace and joy as it vibrates throughout my body

My heart chakra opens even wider to receive the universal gift of this new love energy

I see all my earthly brothers and sisters embrace each other with warmth and compassion

They have lifted the veil of illusion

The smiles reflect an inner knowledge – they can all stare into the eyes of their enemies and see the mirror of self reflected back

They are relieved that they are no longer on opposing sides

They revel in the discovery of Oneness and can’t believe it was

so long forgotten

Arms (weaponry) are laid down

Arms (human) are linked

We are One

Thank you for taking the time out to do this, you have made a difference!

Afterthoughts…

Please share with us how this affirmation/prayer made you feel after you did it. Your feedback and input is invaluable.

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DISCLAIMER

This site is not intended to provide, and does not constitute, medical, legal, or other professional advice. The content Cherie Roe Dirksen provides is designed to support, not replace, medical or psychiatric treatment. If you believe you may have a condition, please seek qualified professional care.
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